Ok, I skipped the first 3 hours and 10 minutes of the thanking the outgoing alders and mayor – which was the final meeting of the outgoing council. This is only the first meeting of the new council where they elect the new president and vice president. You can watch here starting at about 3:10. The meeting lasts about 35 minutes. Sorry, sorta live blogged as I watched the video, no proofreading!
Swearing in of the New Mayor – Satya Rhodes Conway.
Starts at about 3:11. Lots of clapping and cheering and whistling and a standing ovation.
Swearing in of the New Alders.
Starts at about 3:12. More clapping and cheering and hugs and shaking hands, etc.
Getting Started
Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway convenes the organizational meeting of the new council.
Roll call. All 20 are present.
Rhodes-Conway takes a moment to thank the old council and welcome the new council. She also thanks Mayor Soglin for his decades of service that he served “honorably and well”. She asks them to join her in wishing him the very best going forward. He’s not on camera – people are looking around, so I’m not sure if he’s in the back of the room or not?
They move into the committee of the whole to do the elections. President Samba Baldeh takes the chair for the committee of the whole portion of the meeting. He consults with the city attorney. There is some confusion. They do another roll call. Still all there!
Election of Common Council President
Starts at about 3:18.
Baldeh asks for nominations.
Arvina Martin nominates Shiva Bidar-Sielaff. Not sure who seconded.
Michael Tierney nominates Sheri Carter. Not sure who seconded it.
There are no other nominations. Very clunky process but Baldeh closes the nominations.
They pass out the private paper ballots. Council staff doesn’t give a ballot to Baldeh and he needs to request one. Ballots are collected. The clerk tallies the results.
Bidar has 13 votes, Carter has 7 votes. Shiva Bidar has won the election.
Election of Vice President
Mike Verveer nominates Rebecca Kemble. I didn’t hear who seconded.
Paul Skidmore nominates Barbara McKinney. I didn’t hear who seconded.
There are no other nominations, nominations are closed. They pass out the private paper ballots.
Rebecca Kemble wasn’t given the opportunity but asks to speak to her nomination. She says for the past 4 years she has been on the Common Council Executive Committee and she has been on all the special council ad hoc committees and President’s Work Groups including the Police and Community Relations, Transportation Ordinance Review Committee, the Surveillance Committee and the Task Force on the Structure of City Government. It has always been her driving passion to make sure this body can operate effectively as a whole. In her work she has always strived to organize council members under shared priorities, have clear communication and to make sure – Alder Wood said some kind words as he left and that wasn’t what she was thinking about but – when things get mucked up, she works on compromises, tries to understand where people are coming from and help shepherd through legislation. At the Council orientation she talked about how the council isn’t the council unless they can get 11 or 14 or 15 of us to agree to take an action. In her committee work, behind the scenes, in her neighborhood, in other neighborhoods (like at Tree Lane), she has worked with city staff, the mayor’s office and council members to get a piece of legislation that will pass and make sure that everyone’s voice is heard. We have big challenges ahead of us in terms of our internal function, with 9 new alders. The new alders have different levels of understanding. We have new council staff, and its critical to organize ourself and have leadership that will work with staff and listen to everyone and make sure the staff is listening to everyone and can move our shared priorities forward. We also need processes to move those shared priorities forward, especially around the budget. If you elect her she will make sure that starts happening right away. Additionally we have wicked issues of highly radicalized wealth and income inequality, affordable housing, transit and climate chaos that I think we all agree we need to take actions on. As Matt said, we can’t really act unless we can have hard discussions and make hard decisions. As Vice President she will help make that happen.
Barbara McKinney without integrity, nothing works. The jockeying for getting votes and making decisions about who is going to lead this council made her really uncomfortable. If she remains silent and participates in this as a process it says I agree and it is ok with me and it is not. She has the deepest respect for Alder Kemble, but when she looks at who I am, she does not know if she would be represented at the table. What I have heard is the word “I” and she supports “we” and inclusivity. By putting her name in she is standing for what is best for the city and our residents, all of them. There is a new wave, and a new change to do things differently. The city voted for transparency, equity and inclusion. We must provide that. She works and she does her work, her record speaks for herself. She fell on the Jeffy Trail sword, and risked not getting re-elected. When she made that decision she researched, understood the issue and made the decision even with 35 people standing around her yelling. When you hear Jeffy Trail it was a unanimous decision – that was collaboration, research, hard decision and tenacity. The decision that had her put her name in. She asked “will you be able to work collaboratively with Sheri Carter as council president” and what I heard was “I guess so, if she does what I want”. The work of this body is getting harder, there are more complex issues and we must be a transparent body of public servants. Staffing, cultural police and their charge of keeping people safe, supporting positive systems that often intersects with some of our most vulnerable population, often meeting them at the worst day of their lives. Policy, process, procedure important. But the humanity of who people are is as important. The Task Force on the Structure of City Government to make recommendations, transparency, inclusiveness, decisiveness. The size and diversity of Madison’s population has increased and is changing. These changes have results for challenges and opportunities for all of us in the city. But everyone should be involved in the process and the representation must be transparent, thoughtful, and from a big picture perspective for the good of the city we love. Creating ultimately policies, practices, and procedures that improve our local government. I am at a place I did not intend to be at. And this is very difficult for me. I heard speak truth to power. I’ve heard about the elephant in the room. But we continue to not really tackle the elephant in the room. I stand here, putting myself out, and saying, as a city, as a council, as a person in humanity, we must begin to tackle the elephant in the room. We talk about equity, but we are not practicing equity. We talk about it on the outside of this chamber and expect those who voted for us to practice equity, but we do not practice equity within these walls. I put my name in, and I did not strategize, I did not ask for votes. I come before you naked, saying change must happen, change must happen now and I want to be a part of systemic changes that we need to see and that we demand to see in the City of Madison. So I stand on that, and I ask you to stand with me and elect me as Vice President of this Council. And it reminds me of when Sheri Carter and I were elected as the first two african american women in the 100 year history of the council – that is unheard of. That is not acceptable and we cannot continue to go forward with that. When I look in the mirror at the end of the day, whether I win or lose, I stood on my conventions and I said enough is enough.
(Whew – I wonder went on behind the scenes or in the first 3 hours of this meeting!)
Ballots are collected. The clerk tallies the results.
Tie 10 to 10.
Another ballot is handed out. There is some confusion, seems like someone wants to speak, Baldeh says the body has to approve it. Then they go on voting and collecting the ballots. The clerk tallies the results.
McKinney gets 11 votes. Kemble gets 9 votes.
Closing
They go out of the committee of the whole, they report out the results. More confusion. They vote to accept the report.
Alder Baldeh hand the chair over to Alder Bidar, Bidar instead makes a motion to recess the meeting. They recess until . . . well, 24 minutes ago as I’m posting this!
